I is for I scream . . . you scream . . . we all scream for ICE CREAM!

My husband and I have been married for almost fifty-four years, and ice cream has always been a part of our lives. This connection began in the summer of 1961, soon after we became engaged. I was the social chairman for the Baptist Student Union at Mississippi College, where both of us were in school. We decided at the end of the summer to have an ice cream social. It was a good party with only one disaster.

I must give a little background information before I tell my sad social chairman story. I led you astray a bit. I was making ice cream before Frank and I met. Actually, my family made ice cream. I can remember my dad on our little back  porch turning the crank. What a sweet memory!

The recipe for ice cream was in my cookbook at home, so I needed to find the recipe for our party. Fifty-four years ago, there was no Google, of course, so we went to a bookstore, and I copied the recipe on the sly.

Now back to my story. I believe we made two freezers of ice cream, and everyone had had a dish or two. Frank and I hadn’t had any, so we were working on a third freezer. Frank turned and turned the crank; our BSU director took a turn and turned and turned. That cream just would not freeze! Finally, Frank opened the machine to see very soupy cream. He stuck his finger in and tasted. Yuk! Salt had seeped into the cream, and it never would have frozen! What a disappointment! So much work and no homemade ice cream. Our BSU director opened the Wigwam, our snack bar, and got ice cream for us. It just wasn’t the same.

Through all of the years of our married life, we have made ice cream in the summer. Usually, we begin around Father’s Day. In fact, in Pensacola, we always had a big Father’s Day party for Frank and had the singles in our Sunday School department out for a party. So much fun!

The three flavors that we always have are vanilla, chocolate, and orange-pineapple sherbet. Here are the recipes:

Vanilla Ice Cream

4 eggs                                                            2 cups whipping cream

2 1/2 cups sugar                                    2 tablespoons vanilla

6 cups milk                                                1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups half and half cream

Beat eggs and gradually add sugar.  Mix in milk, then both creams.  Add vanilla and salt.  Pour into freezer and freeze!  Always delicious!!

Chocolate Ice Cream

2 cans Eagle Brand                                    1/2 gallon chocolate milk

3 well-beaten eggs                                    2 teaspoons vanilla

Mix and freeze!

Orange Sherbet

2 cans Eagle Brand                                    1 large can crushed pineapple, well drained

2 quarts Sunkist                                    2 teaspoons vanilla

Mix and freeze!

We were famous for homemade ice  cream in Pensacola, and our fame has followed us to New Mexico, so much so that I noticed one of our friends looking through our freezer at our Christmas Open House one year. When I asked Ralph what he was looking for, he said that he just knew I had homemade ice cream there. I always had ice cream, or so he thought.

I’ve already made ice cream this spring, so we’ve gotten a good start! Oh, I almost forgot to tell you something. For most of our ice cream years, we’ve used an electric freezer. I don’t know how many we’ve worn out. Frank just ordered a new freezer (nowadays, clerks call them ice cream makers) for us. Guess what! It’s both electric and manual! Hooray! If the electricity goes off, the Youngs can still have ice cream!